Anathema
by Zeiyuu
Summary: As the daughter of a devout martial artist, Lucy Heartfilia works hard to become strong enough to carry on the name of the Heartfilia dojo. Things become... complicated when a certain pink haired tornado blows into her home and completely turns her life upside down. Fairy Tail characters in the Ranma 1/2 world! (Only Fairy Tail characters are used in this story)
1. Prologue

Just a fun little thing I'm getting myself into~ I hope that you enjoy it!

This story uses the characters of Fairy Tail but they are placed in the world and situations of Ranma 1/2!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail nor Ranma 1/2. This story is purely fan made.

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No one ever said that the life of a martial artist would be easy.

This was a lesson that was learned early on.

"Father," Layla began as she approached the man who had just banished her twin brother from their school of martial arts. Before she could touch him, her longtime friend and companion, Gildarts, reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head. The master needed that moment of silence as they watched her brothers receding figure.

Layla wasn't sure what to do. Neither one of her brothers were apart of the Fairy Tail school of martial arts that her father had spent so many years building up anymore. It hurt quite a bit to know that they would hurt their teacher in such a way.

"Ivan and Jerome… they were weak-hearted." Makarov said after a long while of watching the horizon in which his son had just disappeared upon. "They were not strong enough to carry on the name of Fairy Tail." He was smiling sadly as he turned his attention onto his two remaining students. "They did not belong with us."

"Father…" Layla had tears in her eyes when the man placed a hand on her shoulder, only physically capable of doing so because of the large boulder that he'd been standing on.

Makarov was quite short.

"Layla," the aging man said fondly, "My beautiful daughter. You have done much to make me proud. I believe you will do well in raising a very strong successor." He squeezed her shoulder and turned his eyes onto Gildarts who had been standing beside his daughter. Makarov placed his other hand on the shoulder of the fairly large young man.

"Gildarts," The old man laughed heartily, "My adoptive son." he shook his head, "You have done well to make me proud as well, much more so than any of my other two sons." He nodded, "You _are_ my son. My blood may not run in your veins… but that changes nothing." He smiled, "Fairy Tail will one day be the strongest school of Martial Arts. Of that… I am certain."

Layla and Gildarts shared a look before matching grins split across the both of their faces as they nodded in agreement. "Yes, master!" They said in unison as they followed their teacher when he hopped down from the boulder and began to walk in the opposite direction that Ivan had gone.

For many years, they continued their training in various regions of Japan. Until they came across a quaint city called Magnolia, where Layla met a man by the name of Jude Heartfilia and everything gradually began to change.

While she certainly would never give up her life as a martial artist… she did fall head over heels in love with Jude. When he proposed, she couldn't help but say yes. Especially when he promised a place for her father as well as have a dojo custom built beside their home.

It was a promise that appealed to both of the martial artists greatly.

Gildarts, although in love himself, was not ready to settle down. So he left with a promise to one day return with a child so that together… their children would carry on the Heartfilia dojo.

Unfortunately, it was shortly after Layla gave birth to a beautiful baby girl that she began to show signs of chronic illness. She got in a few good years of raising and teaching Lucy the basics. Although, by the time Lucy was old enough to really begin delving into actual techniques… Layla was often too weak to even get out of bed, much less to help train Lucy. No matter how badly the woman had wanted to.

Lucy had to learn all that she could from Makarov, who was too grieved by his daughters all too familiar illness to really throw himself into teaching Lucy. So, Lucy did her best to teach herself for a long time. She wanted her mother to see her grow strong. She wanted to carry on the Heartfilia dojo even though her mother could not.

It was around Lucy's tenth birthday that her cousin Laxus Dreyar came to live with the Heartfilia's. His mother had died and he'd demanded to live with his grandfather. At the time, Laxus was thirteen. He was already a fairly strong martial artist by this point. So on the days that Makarov wasn't feeling up to teaching, he would often help teach Lucy.

Lucy quite enjoyed having another kid around who she could play and train with. Though she did swiftly come to discover that she had a lot more to learn than the young girl initially had thought. Her technique was sloppy and she truly had a long way to go before she'd become the martial artist that she wanted to become. For her mother.

Nonetheless, Lucy was more than happy to learn more.

As the only able bodied woman in the household, Lucy did much of the cooking for her family. While they had maids, Layla had always expressed her distaste in the thought of hiring somebody to cook for all of their meals. It was too impersonal, this was what she would say whenever Jude would give her a hard time about pushing herself too hard when it came to cooking.

So Lucy had begun to learn how to cook quite young, learning from her mother… and then learning from her mother's cookbook when the woman could no longer get out of bed for such things. Over the years, Lucy became a fairly exceptional cook.

With school as well, however, cooking three square meals a day for her family really did cut into her training time.

Sadly, Layla did not live to see Lucy's sixteenth birthday. Everybody in the Heartfilia household had been so grief stricken… nobody even could even look at the dojo for several weeks.

Without the option of going into her mother's room with the intention of simply talking… Lucy truly lost somebody very important in her life. For a long time, even her cousin couldn't get her to step foot in the dojo.

It wasn't until her father told her that she needed to continue to do what she loved, even if it made her feel sad for a little bit longer.

Her mother would have wanted that.

Lucy, knowing that her father was right, did as he suggested. And this time around, Makarov was much more responsive to training sessions than he had been in the past.

Lucy became stronger… although it never felt strong enough.

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Please drop a review for me if you enjoyed this 3


	2. Here's Natsu!

Alright! So here is chapter one of this lovely story!

You may have questions after this chapter... but I promise you, there will be answers to those questions! Just hang tight my lovely readers 3

I'm planning on updating every Tuesday. Though if I reach ten to fifteen reviews on this chapter before then, I'll update sooner :D

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"You did _what_?" Lucy demanded as she stared into her father's stoic face, not entirely sure she had heard him correctly. She couldn't have.

"It was something we had discussed long ago." Jude explained, "You weren't even born yet. Your mother thought it was a good idea at the time as well." He grimaced in response to the glare that his daughter sent his way. "He is a very strong and capable young man! He will help to make the dojo strong. Your mother-"

"Don't." Lucy warned, holding a finger up as she struggled to contain her anger. "Don't you dare bring mama into this, dad. I'm only seventeen!" She stood up from the table and her glare hardened further, "I know mama wanted the dojo to be strong. I _know_ that. But how could you just marry me off to some boy that I have never met? Some boy that _you_ have never met!" She folded her arms across her chest and stared expectantly down at her uneasy father who remained seated.

"Well, Lucy… we just believe that it will be in both you and Natsu's best interest."

"That's _another_ thing!" Lucy shouted as she waved her hands in the air, as if to exaggerate the point that she was about to make. "I've never even met this Gildarts man! The only thing I know about him was that he and mother traveled together, training under grandfather." She frowned, "Yet the man didn't even come to her funeral! How could somebody who was so close to mama not come to her funeral?" Lucy couldn't bring herself to even try to understand.

Jude held up a postcard that had a very cute panda on the front of it, and pointed to said card. "Well, both he and Natsu have been in China for a little over a year now. I don't think he even knows about Layla's passing. They will be arriving today." Thunder rumbled immediately after that statement and it began to rain quite hard.

Perfect weather for the mood that Lucy was in.

"I can't believe this," Lucy groaned before she moved to the back door and leaned against the frame and could actually appear to be mournful as she watched as large raindrops began to pelt their koi pond.

The teenager didn't want to believe for a second that her mother would have agreed to marrying Lucy off to somebody whom she'd never met before. Especially when she had no idea what kind of person Gildarts' son would turn out to be.

Then again… Layla had to have been quite young and perhaps even impulsive back then. Lucy had no idea what kinds of things her mother would have said or done. There was a very good possibility that her father wasn't just saying all of that stuff.

"Put me down! don't make me do this!" Someone began shouting towards the front of their house and Lucy felt herself bristle immediately in response. Laxus was at her side in an instant, his expression was difficult to read.

"That must be them!" Jude exclaimed excitedly, getting up and hurrying towards the front door. Wishing to be the one to welcome Gildarts and his soon to be son-in-law into the Heartfilia residence. Lucy was almost positive that she'd never seen her father move so quickly. She supposed that she must have underestimated the friendship that he'd had with her mother's old friend.

"Don't worry," Laxus said after Jude's figure disappeared from their line of sight. "I am sure that grandfather will not accept this," he tried to reassure the brown-eyed young woman and she sighed softly.

Their grandfather had been gone for a few weeks now, talking about some business he'd needed attending to before leaving without any other means of explanation.

A bloodcurdling scream almost immediately drew both of the teenager's attention and they were about to hurry to Jude's aid… before he came running into the room and hid behind Laxus as though he were a large shield.

A panda, carrying a red-haired girl entered the room and stared at the three of them intently, with eyes that seemed a bit too self-aware to truly belong to an animal.

Then, he calmly set the squirming girl down in front of them and pushed her forward.

"Um… I'm Natsu Clive." Her gaze found Lucy's shocked expression before she looked away, "I'm uh, I'm sorry about this." The other girl looked extremely flustered and embarrassed.

"Wait… _you_ are Natsu?" Jude asked incredulously. Natsu quite clearly was a female, Even the baggy black chinese shirt that she wore couldn't necessarily hide the relatively large breasts that were hidden by the thick material. "Where on earth is Gildarts? I don't understand..." Jude stared at Natsu unabashedly before slowly turning his attention onto the Panda that continued to stand on his hind legs. He was also staring at Jude with an equal amount of intensity.

Lucy, of course, was thrilled by the news and moved forward. "Hello, I'm Lucy Heartfilia. You don't need to apologize for anything, it is our _fathers_ who should be apologizing." She sent a pointed look to Jude who only continued to stare at the panda in a state of perplexity. " _They_ are the ones who messed up after all." Lucy laughed softly, and Natsu hesitated before nodding in agreement.

"You just came from China, didn't you? Would you like to spar a little?" Lucy was already dressed in her Gi, having been in the dojo before her father had asked her into the living room so that they could talk about something _important_.

So much for that.

"Oh well I don't know, I'm not sure I really wanna spar right now…" Natsu trailed off, scratching the back of her head anxiously.

"Oh come on, please? I only ever get to spar with my cousin, but he never takes me seriously. I love him… but boys just really piss me off lately."

Natsu laughed at that, a very bittersweet sound before finally agreeing and willingly followed Lucy when she began to lead the way towards the dojo.

"I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I am that you're a girl," Lucy said as they walked, "My dad only just told me about the little arrangement he and your father had." They turned a corner and found another long hallway. "I don't think he was expecting for you to be female." She then quickly waved her hands around. "Not that there is anything wrong with same sex marriage of course!" She felt quite embarrassed for her words all of a sudden. "I'm just straight!" Lucy then smacked her forehead, "I have a gift at making things worse than they already are." she sighed and Natsu laughed loudly at the blonde's display.

"Don't worry, I am too." Another laugh before she looked around a little bit, "You have a really big house." She observed, "Your dad isn't a martial artist, is he?"

Lucy shook her head, "No, he owns a branch of department stores." She shrugged, "He does a lot of his work at home though. Paperwork and all that. I can't even imagine doing that kind of thing for a living. It seems so boring." she shook her head and quickly added, "Of course, I _do_ enjoy writing stories on paper. That kind of paperwork I wouldn't mind."

Natsu continued to look around with large, emerald eyes. Lucy wasn't entirely sure that the strange girl was even listening to Lucy anymore at that point. It appeared as though she had never been in such a large house before. Lucy herself thought that it was unnecessarily large. But this was the home that her mother and father had lived the entirety of their married lives in. So Lucy never said anything about it to her father.

When they finally made it to the dojo, Lucy already felt so much better as she breathed in the dojo air deeply and slipped off her shoes.

"Um listen, I'm really not sure about this." Natsu said slowly as she watched while Lucy began to stretch her weary muscles. "Maybe we should wait a little bit for this? Um…" The redhead really didn't seem to want to spar and Lucy felt a small pang of guilt for insisting so much

But only a very small pang.

"I promise I'll go easy on you," Lucy said as she dropped into a ready position and held her hands up defensively, "we don't need to go all out right away. I know you must be tired from your trip here. We don't even have to go very long, how about we just try to knock the other down?" Natsu sighed before nodding.

Lucy waited for the other girl to get ready, but Natsu only stood there and smiled as she watched Lucy. So, the blonde decided to make the first move. She ran at Natsu and began to throw a few punches and kicks. Definitely going a bit slower than she usually would with Laxus or the Master. The last thing she wanted was to actually hurt the other martial artist, especially so soon into their relationship. Though it quickly became clear that this wouldn't be an issue. Natsu evaded each of Lucy's attacks easily. Too easily.

So the blonde picked up the pace, but as her attacks moved quicker… so did Natsu's dodges. It was apparent that Natsu was at a much, much higher level than Lucy. Her gaze darted to the other girls black chinese shirt. She hadn't noticed earlier because it kind of blended in, but Natsu wore a black belt.

It was then that Lucy lost her footing and fell backwards when Natsu reached forward and lightly poked Lucy's forehead, easily pushing her off balance.

Lucy, stunned, fell onto her backside. This girl could probably give even Laxus a run for his money. That was _amazing_.

"You're really good," Lucy accepted the hand that Natsu had extended to help her up. "I wish I had your reflexes. You must have been training your whole life in order to achieve such a fluidity with your body."

Natsu nodded, "Yeah, pop and me have been traveling and training as long as I can remember."

Lucy then blinked when she realized something, "Right… speaking of your dad. Where is he?" She also thought about the panda that had come with Natsu.

How strange.

Natsu grimaced and opened her mouth to answer Lucy's question before a fairly large and very wet man ran into the dojo with his arms open wide.

"Lucy!" He shouted, immediately taking said girl by surprise. She'd never seen that man before in her entire life, though for some reason his face did look a little bit familiar…

Fortunately for her, Natsu was not phased by the strange man's antics and stepped in front of Lucy and punched the guy square in the face without any sign of hesitation, effectively deflecting him.

"Ow!" He shouted, rubbing his already reddening cheek, "Natsu! Is that any way to treat your poor father? I just wanted to greet Lucy properly!" The fully grown man folded his large, muscled arms across his chest and actually appeared to be pouting.

"Oh I didn't know that a 'proper' way of greeting somebody was to attack them without even introducing yourself." Natsu groaned loudly before gesturing to the mumbling adult. "This is my pop." She said with a grimace and Lucy looked the man up and down, curious.

"So you're Gildarts." Now she knew where she recognized his face from. A photo of her mother, grandfather, and three other men that she'd never actually met before. She definitely recognized this man as one of those other people in that photo. "So you traveled with my mom, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah…" Gildarts smile faded, "I had no idea that Layla…" he shook his head, as if to ward off any of the sadness that was beginning to affect his mood. "I'm sorry for your loss. If I had known how bad Layla was getting…" He looked to Natsu, "We probably wouldn't have gone to China."

For some reason… those words seemed to hold a weight to them. More weight than Lucy could understand.

"I'm sure mama wouldn't have wanted to get in the way of your training." Lucy said after a long moment of watching Natsu and her father hold each other's gaze with a matching expression on their faces that she couldn't read.

These two were… strange.

It was then that Lucy noticed how wet the two were and she immediately felt guilty as her attention returned to Natsu, "I'm sorry, I should have taken your state into consideration before I asked for a spar." she gestured to Natsu's wet clothes. "I'll go get baths going for the two of you, if you leave your clothes outside the bathroom doors, I'll have one of the maid's get them clean for you. I should have thought of that first." She laughed as she bopped herself on the forehead, "My brain is all jumbled up because of the whole 'engagement' thing." She then began to leave the dojo, "I'll have my father or somebody come get you when the baths are ready. You can continue to use the dojo if you'd like." She then left the two to their own devices.

Her face slowly fell into that of pensive focus as she walked through the house. So much had happened since she woke up that morning, too much actually. It was so frustrating that her father had waited so long to tell Lucy of her betrothal. She didn't want to be angry at him, because she knew that he'd never been very good at talking about things that may upset her.

Ever since her mother died, Jude had been especially wary of Lucy's feelings. With Layla's death having been expected for so many years… the man had the time to accept the fact that he would need to carry on raising Lucy without Layla's help. It was because of how hard he'd been trying that Lucy didn't want to get too angry with the man.

Lucy entered the first bathroom and began to run the bath. She set out a clean towel for whoever would use that bathroom before she turned and began to head towards their second bathroom.

She supposed having a large house was good for an unexpected houseguest or two.

It was as she was entering the second bathroom that she ran into her father who seemed to have had the same idea as she. "You must be feeling quite silly, father." Lucy scoffed as she passed him and did the same with the second bathroom that she had with the first. Although the only clean towel in that bathroom was one that had her name sewed onto it. She was sure that neither Natsu nor Gildarts would really care about such a thing.

She certainly didn't mind.

"Well… Lucy…" Jude hesitated as she passed him once more upon leaving the bathroom, "Listen…"

"Papa, I'm gonna get started on dinner, please show our guests to the bathrooms, they should still be in the dojo." The blonde spoke over her father, not wanting to snap at him because of her salty mood.

It was when she entered the kitchen that she began to wonder about that panda again. Where on earth had it gone?

More importantly… why did she feel so unphased by a panda striding into her home like it owned the place? Maybe the news of the engagement had affected her more than she'd initially thought.

She sighed softly and took her apron off of the hook that it hung from beside the refrigerator and put it on. She would cook dinner… and then things would begin to return to normal.

At least… she hoped so anyway. But something told her that things weren't going to be _quite_ that simple.

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Please drop a review and let me know what you think of the story so far~ c:


	3. Two Sides Of The Same Coin

Hey guys! I'm back with chapter two! I hope that you guys enjoy it~ I'm certainly having a lot of fun writing it ^^

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Ranma 1/2

I'm updating this story every Tuesday, but if I get 10-15 reviews on this chapter... I'll update sooner :D

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Cooking always managed to suck Lucy up into her thoughts, which wasn't necessarily a good thing right then. She took out all of the necessary ingredients that she would need and got to work on cleaning and peeling all the vegetables.

She was working on the potatoes when her thoughts moved to Natsu again.

The poor girl. She was probably just as frustrated with her father as Lucy was with her own. She definitely appeared to be, based on the interaction that Lucy had seen between the father and daughter. She also couldn't help but notice how Natsu looked absolutely _nothing_ like Gildarts. There wasn't even a remote semblance between the two.

Natsu must look more like her mother. Lucy was curious about that as well, was Natsu's mother actually okay with Gildarts carting their daughter around and ignore school? Or… was Natsu's mother no longer in the picture? There were so many questions that Lucy had, but she couldn't really see a way for her to get any answers without asking.

And she certainly didn't want to ask. She honestly would really like it if they didn't stay for too much longer. She had a feeling, deep in her gut, that the longer those two stuck around… the more likely things would change, and not necessarily for the better.

"Luce." Laxus' voice immediately pulled Lucy out of her thoughts and she nearly nicked her finger with the potato peeler before she looked over her shoulder. Laxus stood in the doorway, looking as though he wanted to say something. And judging by the reluctant expression on his face, it was something that he didn't think that she would be too fond of.

"Laxus," She replied, her tone expressed just how exasperated she was feeling about everything that had happened so far. She was tired of the day's surprises quite frankly. "What is it? Please don't beat around the bush."

Laxus had just opened his mouth to reply, though it was not his voice that spoke next, "I believe what the boy was going to say is that your apron could use a good wash." Came a new voice and Lucy's eyes almost immediately landed on her short grandfather who was standing only a few steps behind and to the right of Laxus.

Looking down at her stained apron, Lucy sighed softly before looking back to the elderly man with a smile. "When did you get home master?" She asked curiously, "You would not believe what has been going on."

Laxus, on the other hand, was frowning at their grandfather. "What I was going to say has nothing to do with her apron, why would that even matter?"

"Please carry on Lucy dear," Makarov said cheerily as he grabbed Laxus' wrist and pulled the large man through the door, "We will catch up in a bit! I've got to speak with Laxus first. It smells great, keep up the good work!" A frown was beginning to form on Lucy's face as she watched the two disappear from her line of sight.

Why was everybody around her deciding to act so strange all at the same time? Had she missed some kind of meeting? Was it 'screw with Lucy' day?

Shaking her head, Lucy returned her attention to the vegetables that she had been preparing for the stew before the short interruption.

A decent amount of time passed before she got the stew going on the stove and decided that she wanted to take a quick bath before supper. By this point she figured that both of their guests would be close to done with theirs.

The first bathroom that she came across was the one that Gildarts was in, she found out after knocking and getting his grunted reply.

The next bathroom she walked to was the one that Natsu had been using. Though just as she turned the corner, she walked smack into the bare chest of a stranger. A complete stranger.

Her gaze slowly moved up from his well sculpted abs and she blinked at the unfamiliar pink-haired guy who looked just as surprised to see her there.

Lucy's eyes darted from the slightly wet male to the open bathroom door and she shrieked.

"Lucy!" She heard Laxus shout and she knew that he would be at her defense in mere moments.

"What did you do to her?!" Lucy demanded, "Who the hell are you and why the hell are you here?!"

"W-wait a second!" The creep said after a second, "I swear it's not what you think!"

"Natsu!" Lucy shouted, "Are you okay?!" She forcefully shoved the half-naked male to the side and bolted into the bathroom. Only to slip on some water that had pooled on the tiled floor. She yelped and fell backwards, the blonde was so completely thrown off of balance she _should_ have cracked her head on the floor.

But she didn't.

Instead, a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her, easily catching her before she was even at risk of injury. One of her savior's hands accidentally groped at her breast. She yelped again with heated cheeks and quickly spun out of the man's grip. Her hand met with his cheek and the sound of it echoed for a second in the large hallway.

"Listen to me!" The guy continued as though nothing had happened, unaffected by the hand to cheek contact. "Natsu is fine." Lucy blinked before squirming the rest of the way out of his arms.

"Why should I believe a pervert like you?! Who just walks into somebody's house uninvited like this?" Her gaze traveled down to the towel that was at his waist, immediately noticing her initials in a rather… unpleasant spot.

She would have to burn that towel later.

"Pervert, what…?" Then all of a sudden his cheeks heated up as he looked at the hand that had groped at her breast, as though he'd only just realized what he had done and he shook his head. "I'm not a pervert! I'm Natsu!" Lucy froze as she'd been about to turn and search for the little redhaired girl again. "I'm Natsu Clive, I'm sorry about all of this." He repeated the words that the female Natsu had said earlier and Lucy slowly turned to look at the male again.

She looked skeptical. Who wouldn't at a declaration like that?

"Thats impossible. Natsu is _definitely_ a girl. What kind of sick game do you think you're playing?"

It was then that Laxus stepped forward, having been standing nearby before he finally had enough of all of the banter. He planted a firm hand on the pink haired man's shoulder and glared. "I think you are going to need to demonstrate."

"Yeah, show them the truth!" Came a new voice and Lucy spun on her heel just in time to see an equally half naked Gildarts running in their direction at top speed. This guy certainly seemed to be a fan of running everywhere.

The pink haired boy shouted as he was scooped up into a pair of burly arms and protested vehemently as the man opened a nearby window and tossed the smaller male out into the rain.

"What the hell pop?!" Came a somewhat familiar feminine voice, immediately surprising Lucy as she rushed to the window.

Out in the rain, stood a fully naked female Natsu. The one that Lucy had first met earlier that day and the pink haired boy was nowhere to be seen. What had just happened? Was she seeing things? This was a very strange thing to hallucinate, perhaps she had eaten some bad eggs during breakfast that morning?

Before Lucy could even think of anything to actually say, Natsu skillfully scaled the wall and climbed back into the house through the same window that she'd been tossed out of. She was drenched by the rain that continued to fall from the near-black sky.

"And this… is his secret. Such a tragedy." Gildarts sobbed dramatically, "My son… my beautiful son… is now also my daughter."

"Ha ha pop." Natsu glared, "If you want to show them a real tragedy, how about you show them _your_ secret?" With that, Natsu somehow managed to heft the large man off of his feet and then proceeded to throw him out that same window.

Almost immediately, Lucy watched in horror as Gildarts went from man to panda in mere seconds.

"What…?"

"We're cursed," Natsu said with a shrug as she placed her hands on her hips. Entirely unabashed by her state of undress. "When we get hit with cold water we transform into our cursed forms, mine is that of a girl… and pops…" Natsu snickered, "Well, you see what he turns into."

Lucy stared at Natsu wide eyed before her head whipped to Laxus, who also was staring at the fully exposed female before them. She elbowed her cousin in the side, hard.

"Don't look!" She shouted, shoving him away and Natsu blinked in confusion at Lucy's sudden change in behavior before flinching as the blonde's brown-eyed glare turned right back onto her. "How do you turn back into a guy then?" She then smacked her forehead and looked flustered, "I can not believe I just asked a question like that." Lucy groaned loudly, "This has got to be some kind of nightmare. But even then this is a really weird dream…" Lucy pinched herself and felt like breaking something when she didn't wake up.

"Hot water," Natsu shrugged. "Hot water reverses the curse."

"Alright great! Now go take a shower and put on some clothes!" Lucy shoved Natsu in the direction of the bathroom before covering her face in her hands.

"You know what this means… right?" Laxus asked after a long moment of just watching Lucy try and calm her nerves. "Natsu is a guy. So…"

"Yeah I know." Lucy sighed, "Knowing my father he will think this means that the engagement is perfectly valid. God… why can't he just understand that it's not okay to decide who your kid will marry? It's the twenty-first century."

Laxus didn't look at all pleased by the situation that his cousin was in either as he frowned at Natsu's retreating figure before looking back to Lucy. "I don't think grandfather is going to have a problem with it." he frowned, "I don't know how… but he already knew about the curses."

Lucy squinted at Laxus, "How could he already know about the curses?" She asked with a frown, "He knows and he hasn't said anything about it?" Lucy shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I just don't understand why all of this is this happening in the first place." The truth was, she didn't _want_ to understand.

"I'll keep an eye on this Natsu guy. I don't want him getting any ideas."

Lucy glared at her cousin, "I can protect myself!" She gestured to her orange belt, "Does this mean nothing to you?"

Laxus chuckled before patting the girl on the head, "That may be so but you know I'm always gonna want to protect you. You're basically the sister I never had." He only laughed harder when her glare intensified.

"You're so cruel Laxus." Lucy whined pitifully as she puffed out her cheek and pouted at him, which didn't seem to help her cause in the slightest. Although truly, she was always happy to hear Laxus laugh. He was so serious most of the time, so it almost immediately perked Lucy up a little whenever she heard him chuckle.

But then she remembered Natsu and Gildarts and her face fell again. Laxus noticed and pushed his hands into his pockets. "Try not to worry about it too much. I'm sure that if enough time passes… they'll just wind up forgetting about it." He didn't sound sure and Lucy knew that he was only saying it to try and make her feel better, but she nodded with a small smile on her lips.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"Um…" Lucy's head whipped to the right and she glared at the young man who now stood in the doorway of the bathroom. His hair was wet and he looked uncomfortable. He was dressed in the same clothes that he'd been wearing earlier, and now Lucy could see why they had seemed so loose on him as a female. He was a lot bigger in his male form.

 _Much_ to Lucy's dismay, she actually felt quite attracted to him.

"I should have known," she sighed, "I've never met another female martial artist besides my mom, so why should that change now?"

"Well… if you want I can take you more seriously. I know you said you don't like how nobody takes you seriously," His gaze found Laxus and her cousin bristled in response.

"What are you trying to say?" Laxus demanded as he straightened up. "You got a problem with me?" Laxus was a large guy. He easily towered over most people, so he was used to intimidating people into submission.

Natsu, however, didn't even blink. Having straightened up as well when Laxus had. "Well, I didn't really before, but I don't like how you are looking at me right now." He cracked his knuckles and Laxus scoffed, clearly amused by the smaller male's display.

"Are you challenging me to a fight? Because that's kind of what it sounds like."

"I don't know, maybe." Natsu smirked. "Do you think you could handle somebody on your level?" It was Lucy's turn to bristle and she glared at Natsu, who quickly began to wave his hands in a dismissive matter. "No offense Luce!"

"Don't call me Luce!"

"Don't call her Luce!"

Both of the blond cousin's said in unison, causing Natsu to Laugh.

"Geez, you guys are a riot. Maybe it won't be so bad here." Natsu tightened and tied the drawstrings of his black chinese pants before he tensed and sniffed the air a bit. "Does…" another sniff, "Does something smell like it is burning to you?"

Lucy blinked before wincing when realization dawned on her, "The stew!" She exclaimed and immediately began to run in the direction of the kitchen, where several maids were already trying to put out a fire and air out the kitchen. It having been filled with thick, black smoke.

"What happened?!" Lucy coughed as she rushed to the stove to assess the damage that had been done. She didn't understand, she had been so careful to make sure that she lowered the heat before leaving the kitchen.

"Oh… well…" One of the maids hesitated, seemingly not willing to answer the blonde. "We aren't sure. It must have been some kind of crazy accident." Lucy groaned loudly as she stared at the charred remains of the dinner that she had taken such care to prepare.

"This is the fourth time this week… I wonder if there is something wrong with the stove."

"Oh no! How horrible!" Her father came in and seemed even more upset about what had happened than she did. "What a travesty! Oh boy… I guess if we have to order takeout…" Already her father had pulled out his cell phone and began tapping on it. "Then I guess that's just what we have to do, no matter how it pains me to do so."

"Oh papa! I can whip something else up really quickly! You don't need to do that!" Though Lucy did feel a bit discouraged, because she'd gotten the stew to the exact consistency that she'd wanted. She really had thought she'd out done herself.

"Oh! Don't worry Lucy, you worked hard on that meal! We will just order ramen!" Jude seemed quick to dismiss Lucy's offer to attempt making dinner again.

The blonde sighed. "Alright, fine. I'd like pork please." Laxus quickly put in a request as well, also seeming eager for the takeout.

"Did something happen to the dinner that Lucy was working on?!" Makarov demanded, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, "We are having ramen then?! I want three bowls of pork ramen!" The old man held up three fingers and Jude nodded.

Lucy squinted at her family members, they seemed so excited about the turn of events… too excited.

When Gildarts joined the party, everybody was set. So Jude placed an order to a nearby restaurant and Lucy, thoroughly disappointed by the turn of events, plopped in front of the television, turned it onto her favorite program, and promptly began to ignore the world around her.

Usually, when she was in a mood like this… she would lock herself in her room and pour her thoughts and feelings onto paper. Though truly, she didn't feel comfortable leaving her father alone with the newcomers. Although he'd known Gildarts for longer than she'd been alive, she found it difficult to trust somebody who could turn into a panda. Muchless his son who could turn into a girl. What a pervert!

She was still sulking when someone plopped down on the couch beside her and she slowly turned a glare onto the intruder.

"Seriously?" she demanded, not entirely surprised by the fact that it was Natsu who had decided to sit beside her, "I'm trying to pretend that none of this is actually happening, so what do you want?" Lucy usually was quite a friendly person. But this guy was really screwing with her whole life and she definitely hadn't been mentally prepared for such a flip.

"Listen… I think we need to talk." Natsu began and Lucy released a loud sigh as she shifted on the couch so that she was leaning farther away from the pink haired man. "I don't really think we started out very good, I kind of would like to give it another shot if that's alright with you. We are on the same side! We should team up if anything. I'm sure that would definitely shock our dads." Natsu grinned and Lucy's expression softened.

He had a point, _he_ wasn't her enemy. It wasn't as though he'd had any say in it back when he was a baby. He was just as much a victim in this situation as she was. And truly, she was being unfair by treating him the way that she was. She wasn't usually so moody, but the idea of not having a choice when it came to who she would wind up marrying… well. That definitely didn't sit well with the young blonde.

"Yeah… I'm sorry, I know." She shifted on the couch again, relaxing a little bit in an attempt to show Natsu that she was trying. "I just don't know what to do. I love my dad… but I am just not ready to be engaged, much less to somebody I've never met before." She was quick to continue, "I am sure you're a good guy, Natsu. But…"

Natsu nodded his head, "No I know what you're saying. I've been fighting with my pop the whole way here. I didn't even want to come back to Japan until we figured out a way to reverse this curse." He grimaced and Lucy could see the momentary anguish in his obsidian eyes. "But pop can really put up a good fight when he is actually trying." Admitting this almost seemed to bring Natsu pain and Lucy suddenly felt extremely intrigued by this person.

If he had been training his entire life… he really had to be something incredible. She knew that Laxus too had been training hard from the time he could walk.

Laxus didn't talk much about the live he'd lived before he moved into the Heartfilia estate, but there had been an occasion here or there where he would let something slip. His father had been very hard on Laxus, pushing him well past his limits many, many times. It was his mother, Ophelia, who prevented Laxus from being worked to death. It was his mother's dying wish for Laxus to live with Makarov, and Laxus certainly didn't have any problem doing as she asked.

He hated his father.

Lucy couldn't believe that Gildarts would have treated his own son in such a way, mostly because her mother had loved and trusted Gildarts whole-heartedly. There was a reason that Ivan had been expelled from the Fairy Tail school of martial arts. But even so… Natsu was strong. She'd witnessed that first hand, he hadn't even broken a sweat during their little spar. She was interested to see how he would fight if he actually tried.

"Yeah speaking of that," Lucy turned her whole body so that she was facing Natsu on the couch, her eyes sparkled with curiosity. "This curse… tell me about it." Part of her had been kind of wanting to ask, but at the same time… it seemed entirely rude to bring something like that up without provocation, which seemed silly now that she thought about it. Of course it was natural to want to know the reasoning behind such an unnatural circumstance.

Natsu inhaled deeply before beginning, "Well, it all started when pop found a flier for a special training ground in China. Whenever he learns of a new training ground, we would hike to it. No matter how far away it was, he'd always say that it was part of the training." Natsu's face scrunched up a bit, "Though I'm pretty sure it's because he never wants to pay a fee for transportation. So naturally… we swam there." He grinned at Lucy's slack-jawed response to that information.

"You… _swam_ to China?" It was clear by her tone that she didn't believe him and Natsu laughed at her.

"Of course we did! Which was great because I hate boats." An ill expression made its way to his face at the mere mention of it, Lucy could have sworn that his face turned an odd mix of green and blue, "I have motion sickness." Lucy continued to stare at Natsu before her gaze slowly moved to where her father and Gildarts were speaking at the table. She stared at Gildarts who laughed heartily at something Jude had said and she narrowed her eyes. While he may not necessarily be a terrible father for forcing his son into training for such a long time… he certainly had questionable parenting methods.

"Okay so ignoring the fact that the two of you are crazy to have swam across the ocean to China, what happened when you got there?" Lucy swiftly brought the topic back to their curses and Natsu cleared his throat.

"Well, the first thing we did was find a tour guide. Because neither pop or me speak a word of Chinese. So it was kind of necessary since we didn't really want to hike around all of China just trying to find one training ground." He frowned, "Although… in the end we wound up running all over China _anyway_. But that's beside the point." He grew serious, "Our guide talked a lot about things that neither of us really cared about. So eventually, I guess we kind of began to tune the guy out. Which was definitely a mistake and if you ever plan on going to China… definitely listen to everything the guide says. Even if it all sounds like useless nonsense."

Lucy laughed anxiously, "Well, I guess it's a good thing that I'm not really ever planning on going to China." Her laugh died down pretty quickly when Natsu didn't return her smile and she winced, "It's that bad huh?"

"Well yeah!" Natsu ran a hand back through his hair, easily messing it up even further than it already was. "My manhood was stolen from me just because pop didn't know how to listen."

Lucy decided to let that comment slide, figuring it was probably best to not remind him that it took two to make a mistake like that. Especially since he'd just said mere moments before that he'd been ignoring the guide as well.

"So by the time we got to the training grounds… we were too excited to listen anymore to what the guide was saying. We dove right into it. Have you ever heard of bamboo shoot balancing?" He asked curiously, switching from one subject to another so quickly Lucy almost didn't even notice.

"Huh? Oh um…" she trailed off as she placed a finger to her chin and thought hard, "I think I remember grandfather speaking of it once… it is one of the techniques that he spoke of, but never actually got around to training us with it. Bamboo shoot balancing, I'm pretty sure the name is fairly self-explanatory. It's when you balance atop the bamboo shoots and spar… right?" She didn't feel confident in her answer but released a small breath of air when Natsu nodded.

"Yeah! It is an advanced style of sparring, it's a lot of fun." He folded his arms across his chest and looked up at the ceiling as he recalled the memory of the day that changed the course of his life. "Anyway, the reason I ask is because this training ground was made up of just that. There were tons of bamboo just shooting out of hundreds of hot spring pools. There were so many… that I couldn't even see the end of it. It honestly was amazing, any martial artist's dream training ground." He looked sorrowful, "Pop and I leapt onto the closest shoots that we could and got right to training. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary."

Lucy found herself subconsciously leaning forward as she listened to Natsu speak, he'd lived such an adventurous life! She was quite jealous of him, if she were being completely honest. Although the idea of swimming such a large distance certainly didn't appeal to her-or even seem possible-she kind of wished that she could have been with them.

"Our guide had begun yelling almost the second our feet left the ground, although it was even more confusing to understand than it usually was because he was so stressed out. He was mixing Chinese in with his already broken English, so we had no idea what he was yelling about. And like I said… by that point we'd gotten pretty good at ignoring everything that he had to say." Natsu's eyes left the ceiling and found Lucy's brown ones, he blinked in surprise at her intense stare and he quickly looked away from her.

"It was when I knocked pop into one of the springs that things began to get a little bit… weird. At first I was excited, because I'd gotten the first good hit in! It always feels good to beat pop at his own game, but… it took him a while to come back to the surface. At first I thought that he was going to crawl out and say that he wanted to take a break already. But… out jumped a panda!" Natsu waved his arms around, drawing the attention of both their fathers as well as Laxus who had been lounging a few feet away with his headphones on.

Lucy was positive that no music was actually playing right then. She was sure that Laxus wanted an explanation for the strange phenomenon just as badly as she had.

"I have no idea why pop didn't realize that he'd been changed, but he was attacking me just like he would have if nothing weird happened. It took me by surprise and he knocked me into a different spring. When I came out…" he trailed off and dropped his hands into his lap, "I had boobs and red hair and…" he trailed off, and a flush of warmth spread across his cheeks and Lucy could feel the secondhand embarrassment as though she'd been reading a good book. "When we realized what happened we demanded answers from our guide. Apparently he had been trying to warn us about the 'cursed springs of Jusenkyo' the entire time." He dropped his head in shame.

"Okay… but what on earth would make somebody change into a different form?" Lucy didn't understand, the whole thing seemed so crazy, but it felt good to have a little bit more information on the strange curse.

"Apparently in each one of those springs at Jusenkyo… something drowned a couple thousand years ago. And if anybody falls in… they take the form of whatever had drown in said spring. For me, I fell in the spring of drowned girl. Apparently some redheaded chick drowned in that spring… like… two thousand years ago? Hot water reverses the curse… cold water triggers it. You would be surprised how many times I've been hit by cold water ever since we were cursed." Natsu covered his face, "I don't even want to think about what the other pools were. It's pretty bad being a girl, but it could be a lot worse." He sent a pointed look to his father and Gildarts glared at him.

"Boy, as a martial artist you agree to all dangers that may pose a threat to your life!" Gildarts pointed an accusatory finger at Natsu and the pink haired boy jumped up in response, Lucy had an impression that this was an argument that they'd had before.

"Yes! Pop, I know! Like I've said, my life is one thing… my manhood is an entirely _different_ thing! Why the hell are you not understanding that?!" Gildarts was on his feet by that point, and the two began to fight, right there in the middle of the living room.

Not a full two minutes passed before the two were sopping wet and in their cursed forms once again, having dragged the fight outside at some point.

"I'll uh… put a kettle on the stove I guess." Lucy said uncertainly, when Natsu nodded miserably Lucy hurried off to do just that.

To think that just the day before she'd been worrying about whether or not her life was going to be dull and monotonous.

It had certainly taken a turn for the interesting, and she wasn't so sure that she would ever be able to call life 'dull and monotonous' ever again. But what she couldn't decide, was whether or not that was actually a good or bad thing.

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Please don't forget to drop a review if you enjoyed what you've read ~


	4. Gossip

Okay this one is a little bit shorter than the chapter before, but it is still relatively long compared to other chapters that I've written in my life haha. So I think I'm going to set this as the standard for each chapter length (give and take of course) Please forgive me for any grammatical or other errors, I don't have a beta and I am only human :'D

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Ranma 1/2

I usually update on every Tuesday, but the chapter before got exactly 10 reviews! So I decided to post a little early for you guys! The next chapter will be out next Tuesday, but if I get 10-15 reviews on this chapter... I'll update sooner :D

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As Lucy had suspected, the Clive's visit would last much longer than just a few days. In fact, both Jude and Gildarts had decided that the wedding would certainly happen. Neither one of them seeming to care much at all about how Natsu or Lucy felt on the matter.

Lucy would be lying if she said that she was surprised by her father's behavior and his decision to push forward with the engagement. Jude Heartfilia would more than likely do _anything_ if he thought that it was something that would please his late wife. He'd even attempted to learn the art several times in the past. Although he certainly had the passion… his body was somewhat feeble. Making it impossible for him to get very far at all.

The teen had just gotten downstairs after getting dressed in her school uniform, which consisted of white blouse and sky blue dress combo.

It would be her first day to school since Natsu had joined the Heartfilia's, because he'd arrived on the first day of her summer break. She was a little bit excited for a break from home, if she were being completely honest. Even training in the dojo didn't feel quite like an escape since she often found Natsu lurking nearby. He would often offer to give her pointers, though she hadn't taken him up on that offer yet. Mostly because she was too stubborn, a fatal flaw that she hoped to get over before too much longer.

"Lucy, show Natsu the way to school, okay?" Jude asked at breakfast, casually. "He'll be attending Furinkan high with you from this day forward, so make sure to introduce him to all of your friends! Gildarts has already enrolled him in all of your classes, so make sure to be a good guide alright?" Lucy blinked at the new information.

"What?" She asked, "Natsu is going to go to school?" deciding that was a ridiculous question, Lucy decided to rephrase it. "Natsu is going to go to school _here_?" She supposed that she really shouldn't have been surprised, especially because of how pushy their dads were being. They brought up the engagement at least five times a day, Lucy had gotten so accustomed to it… that it was quite easy to ignore it. Although, Natsu didn't seem to be having such an easy time.

"Dammit pop!" Natsu's feminine voice came from the direction of the backyard and Lucy noticed the steaming kettle that sat beside her father, he'd been expecting this. Lucy could understand why. Every day those two got to sparring, and it almost always ended up with a trip to the bottom of the koi pond. Ultimately resulting in many heated up kettles throughout the day.

The mumbles and growls that followed Natsu's exclamation told Lucy that Gildarts had also been hit by the pond water.

"I don't care what you have to say about it!" Natsu shouted over Gildarts' retorts, "All of this doesn't matter right now anyway! What we should be doing is finding a cure in China! Now you want me to start going to school? What the hell old man?!" A series of thwacks and slaps followed by a loud splash told Lucy that somebody had taken another swim and she glared at her father.

"You want me to take him to school in this condition? He is going to be soaking wet by the time we get there! And if I don't want to be late we need to leave now."

"Natsu!" Jude called just as the red-head popped back up to the surface of the pond, "Come get changed back, Lucy is going to take you to school now!" Lucy watched as Natsu glared daggers at his father who waved smugly.

Natsu let Jude dump the contents of the steaming pot over his head and Lucy watched with mild interest as he changed from girl to boy. She had a feeling that it would never get old, she especially found it interesting since both his eye and hair color changed as well. Was this what the girl who had drowned in that spring looked like? Lucy found that hard to believe because even in his female form, Natsu did somewhat look like Natsu. Save for the complete change of figure, his face looked pretty close to the same as when he was a boy.

Natsu still had a sour look on his face as they walked her usual route to school. Natsu had leapt onto the fence and walked along it easily, amazing Lucy with the incredible control he had over his body once more. A small pang in her heart made her grimace and look away. She was jealous. She'd been training a very long time as well, yet she was nowhere near the level that he was. It definitely got on Lucy's nerves, but she would do her best to keep from taking out her frustrations on Natsu. It wasn't his fault that he was pretty much a master of the art at such a young age.

"You could try to think of it as another form of training," Lucy offered from where she walked beside the fence, casually swinging her book bag, "I'm sure it'll be a challenge for your patience levels, from what I seen so far… you don't really have a whole lot of that." she giggled softly and Natsu scoffed as he looked up at the cloudy sky. "School honestly is pretty fun. I'm sure you'll see that when you start going." Lucy tried to get him to stay positive.

"I've gone to school." Natsu frowned down at Lucy, "It just has never been a huge part of my life. Pop never showed any interest in my schooling either. The only reason I went at all was because we had to settle down for a little while because he was too sick to train with me. I honestly didn't like it at all. It was time that I could have spent honing my skills." He groaned and ran a hand back through his still-damp hair. "Pop teaches me all that I need to know, I don't need school."

"Well most teenagears our age go to school, and I think it would probably be really good for you to try to get used to the idea." Lucy may not be interested in getting engaged, but Natsu did seem like a decent enough guy. She was a little bit concerned about his development in other aspects of his life that weren't martial arts related. While he certainly didn't appear to be unintelligent, Lucy was positive that he needed to go to school.

"Besides." Natsu began, slicing through Lucy's train of thought, "I'm going to open up my own school of martial arts one day. I don't need to go to school for that."

"I could argue with that statement." Lucy turned her attention forward and stifled a groan when she recognized a silhouette on the horizon, right in front of the school gates. The blonde cursed under her breath softly before stretching her arms a little bit, careful to not smack herself in the face with her school bag as she did so.

Natsu, having heard her, looked down at Lucy before turning his gaze forward to try and see what she was glaring at. He jumped off of the fence and walked beside her, "Who is that?" He asked as he squinted in an attempt to get a better look.

"Nobody. Hold my bag?" Lucy didn't wait for a response before she threw her school bag at Natsu and took of running towards the silhouette. The pink haired boy easily caught the bag before he really knew what was going on. He ran after her after the initial shock wore off.

Lucy didn't show any sign of hesitation before attacking the man who held a bokken.

"Oh my darling Lulu! Today is the day I will get you to date me!" The brunette held his arms out wide, as if to accept an embrace, before Lucy's foot met with his left cheek and he was thrown backwards, a smile still on his lips, and tears streaming down his face.

"I don't think so Dan," Lucy took only a moment to straighten her school uniform before she turned to Natsu who had come to a stop right beside her. His eyes were wide as he stared at the unconscious student. He wore traditional Japanese garb, and paired with his bokken... lead Natsu to believe that this guy had to be in the kendo club. "Come on Natsu." Lucy urged as she took her book bag from him. "We really are going to be late if we don't hurry."

Natsu didn't seem satisfied with the guys state of unconsciousness. "Hey, what kind of guy asks something like that so early in the morning?" He poked the guys reddened cheek with the tip of his chinese shoe and Lucy groaned when the guy sat up and rubbed his cheek.

"Now you did it." She pinched the bridge of her nose as if in an attempt to ward off the headache that she knew would be coming before too long. A headache was almost always guaranteed after a certain amount of time spent in the presence of Dan Straight. He was a very, very loud guy.

"Lucy Heartfilia!" Dan exclaimed, immediately jumping to his feet. "That was a great kick! Now-" He immediately cut himself off when his eyes landed on Natsu, who now stood a little bit in front of Lucy, almost defensively as he folded his arms across his chest. "Who are you?" Dan demanded, clearly fully recovered from the kick to the face. "How dare you block the way to my darling Lulu?" He rose the pokken and pointed it at Natsu's chest. "I'm afraid that there is no chance I can let this offence go without punishment."

Natsu raised an eyebrow and stifled a laugh with one hand as he turned to look at Lucy, as if to ask if this guy was for real and the blonde only groaned before nodding her head, clearly ashamed. "Just ignore him, we are going to be late-" Lucy was cut off by a horrifyingly sharp battle cry and she grimaced as her gaze returned to Dan, who was jumping towards Natsu with his sword raised.

A smile spread across Natsu's lips as he turned in time to narrowly dodge the attack.

"Now this is what I'm talking about! If school is like this I might not hate it so much!" He dodged another couple quick-paced sword attacks and watched as Dan's confident expression gradually morphed into confusion as he was unable to land a single hit on Natsu. He released battle cry after battle cry as he thrust his bokken towards Natsu.

Finally, as he seemed to tire out… Natsu began to fight back.

Lucy watched in silent amazement as Natsu easily knocked Dan unconscious.

Her knocking the guy out was one thing. He was madly in love with her, no matter how many times she knocked him out… he always came back for more. When he attacked her, it was completely non-aggressively. Dan was actually the captain of the school's kendo club. His skill was actually parallel to none of their rival schools. So it truly was impressive that Natsu was able to take Dan out so easily, without even breaking a sweat.

It was just as Natsu was turning to face Lucy again that a flash of lightning made itself known to the world, barely signalling the downpour that followed mere seconds later.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Natsu's voice went from masculine to feminine within that sentence and Lucy threw her hands up in the air, defeated.

"Well we can't have you go into school as a girl on your first day!" Perhaps she should consider bringing a thermos of hot water to school every day? It seemed to Lucy as though the curse ran deeper than it seemed on the outside.

She'd never met anybody who got hit by cold water as much as Natsu and Gildarts.

Almost as though merely thinking about him could summon the beast of a man, Lucy noticed a panda running in their direction. A panda with a kettle. Without hesitation, that panda scooped Natsu up into his arms and rushed towards the protection of the schools overhang. Natsu was a boy again in seconds, yelling about how it had been 'too hot', but Gildarts was already rushing off.

Lucy watched, entirely baffled.

She wasn't sure if she should be impressed by Gildarts' swift save, or mildly creeped out over the fact that he had known to come in the first place.

"Lucy!" Natsu shouted and the blonde turned her brown eyes onto the boy who had begun to wring out the ends of his shirt. She couldn't help but find the way he pronounced her name… _cute_. Lu-shi. Why she found it cute? She wasn't entirely sure. "You really shouldn't stand in the rain like that, you could get sick." The girl blinked and realized that she'd yet to move from where she'd been standing when Gildarts came.

She was drenched.

Natsu laughed as Lucy yelled at him about how it would be completely his fault if she did get sick because of how he had gone and picked a fight with Dan when it had already been taken care of.

Lucy apologized profusely to their mildly irritated teacher for being a few minutes late, though he let it slide since it was Natsu's first day.

Natsu introduced himself as a martial artist, naturally, before he took the seat that was beside Lucy.

Classes ran slowly, mostly due to the fact that Lucy had to constantly make sure that Natsu didn't fall asleep in the middle of a lesson.

It wasn't until gym that he became completely attentive. Mostly due to the fact that he was very interested in showing off his impressive stamina and strength. As he had phrased it to Lucy before running off to join up with the other boys who were getting ready to do their activities for the day. Meanwhile, Lucy still needed to get changed into her school's gym uniform. She headed to the locker room and tried to make quick work of changing.

"So… are you going to explain to us why you showed up late to class with the new guy?" Lucy grimaced as one of her friends, Erza, draped an arm over Lucy's shoulder just after she'd taken off her school uniform's top. Erza was quite topless as well, although she'd already changed into her sports bra. "The two of you seem pretty familiar with each other…" Erza winked at Lucy and the latter's face did an impressive shift from pale porcelain to brilliant crimson in seconds.

"I-It's not like that!" Lucy was quick to dismiss her friends suggestion before shrugging off the others arm, "He is just… staying with my family for a little while. That's _all_." Lucy didn't even want to imagine the discourse that would ensue if even one person from her school found out about her engagement with Natsu.

Much to Lucy's chagrin, many of the guys in the school pursued her.

Which might have been something that she'd have enjoyed… back in middle school. Now though, it was mostly exhausting to have so many guys-who didn't even know her, for that matter-be constantly trying to gain her affections.

None of them even _tried_ to get to know her. Lucy supposed that was the part that irritated her the most about it.

"Oh, didn't you hear Erza?" Levy McGarden peeked over from behind a row of lockers, "They're _engaged_!" Both Erza's and Lucy's jaws dropped at the declaration made by their small, blue haired friend who casually went back to changing.

"What?!" The both of them demanded and Erza's eyes were on Lucy in milliseconds.

"I-It isn't what you think!" Lucy quickly waved her hands around, her face somehow managing to attain an entire level of redness. "Levy! You can't just go around saying stuff like that! You know how the people in this school are!" Lucy looked around quickly a couple times, it seemed as though it was just the three of them left in the locker room. But there really was no such thing as 'too careful' in this kind of predicament.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure everybody already knows." Levy finally walked around the corner and folded her arms across her chest. Levy often opted to change away from her two… bustier friends. She was quite a self conscious girl. "Laxus was talking about it with his little group and well… you know how big of a mouth Evergreen has… I'm pretty sure word spread around like a wildfire. I'm surprised you didn't hear about it, I'm _positive_ I heard people talking about it in class." Levy's eyes then found Erza's shocked expression, "And _you_ should have been one of the first to hear about it Erza, you are _in_ Laxus' class.

The two blinked at the new information and Levy facepalmed. "My goodness, the two of you can be as dense as bricks sometimes."

"Oh… well…" Erza's cheeks were then red, "I was a little bit distracted in class today." she admitted sheepishly as she played with her hair, though quickly her easy-going expression turned stern as her eyes fell onto Lucy and she pointed at the blonde. "You are too young to be engaged! What are you thinking Lucy? You need to focus on your education! On your martial arts!"

"I'm telling you!" Lucy felt like she would cry of embarrassment, "It is not a decision that I made! Our dads set it up! Apparently it was some kind of crazy thing they'd decided on before I was even born, it is honestly not something I really want to talk about."

"Oh." Erza blinked before pulling her gym shirt on over her head, "An arranged marriage, huh? I didn't think anybody did those anymore."

"They don't." Lucy sighed loudly before pulling the side pony-tail out of her hair so that she could pull all of her long, blonde hair back into a high pony-tail, not wanting any of it to get in her way during gym. "Our parents are… special cases." She shook her head, letting a few stray strands of hair fall to frame her face. "But we should really get going, they'll be picking the captains for volleyball soon."

Despite the fact that both Erza and Levy clearly wanted to talk more about Lucy's personal life, they concurred and the three of them left the locker room together. Thankfully they hadn't been late, though almost the second that her foot touched the gymnasium floor… Lucy could have sworn all eyes fell onto her and chills ran up her spine.

" _I'm pretty sure everybody already knows."_ Levy had said, and her words echoed in Lucy's brain as she walked to stand in the line that the other girls had formed for when the team captains would be picked. Already Lucy could hear the hushed whispers and she felt like crawling under a rock.

She was going to _kill_ Laxus when she got home.

A loud whistle sounded in the gym, effectively silencing all of her female classmates and drawing their attention off of Lucy and onto the gym teacher who stood with two volleyballs in hand. "Scarlet, Narsa." After he spoke each name, he tossed a volleyball at mentioned person. Erza caught hers easily. "You are today's captains, pick your teams and warm up. We start a match in ten." He then left the girls to their own devices so that he could tell the boys what they would be doing that day.

While Furinkan was definitely a co-ed school… it was a little bit behind in the times when it came to gym activities. The class was always divided between girls and boys.

"Lucy." Erza said first thing, without even a moment's hesitation. It wasn't surprising to the blonde, Lucy was almost always first choice when it came to teams. As a martial artist, her reflexes were good and she was very fit. So naturally, she was pretty good at most sports.

By the time the teams were split up, Erza had managed to snag Levy and quickly got everybody to start stretching.

"So Lucy," the girl beside her, Cana Alberona, sent a sly look her way. "I hear you've already snatched up that handsome new kid." She wiggled her eyebrows and Lucy turned her eyes upwards as she switched the legs that she was stretching. "Engaged huh? How does it feel to be the first girl in school to be engaged? Have the two of you already…?"

The suggestiveness in her tone took Lucy by surprise and she nearly fell over.

Lucy had a feeling that it was going to be a very, _very_ long day. And of course, as most of her instincts have been as of late… she was right.

She was asked about her engagement to Natsu many more times throughout the day, she didn't even want to know about the earful Natsu must have been getting. Truthfully, she wasn't looking forward to talking to Natsu after all was said and done. But of course, she was going to have to. Especially because they lived together.

When their final class wrapped itself up, Lucy said goodbye to Levy before sending a look to Natsu, who had been talking with a couple of the guys in their class and he stood up.

They didn't speak until they were outside.

"You're pretty popular," Natsu mused casually and Lucy groaned, "You should have heard some of the things that the guys were telling me…" he trailed off and stuck his tongue out playfully at Lucy, though frowned when he saw that she was definitely in no mood to tease. "What's the matter?" He asked curiously.

Lucy refused to look at the boy beside her. "Aren't you embarrassed? Or angry that something so personal got spread around the school on your very first day?"

Natsu shrugged and Lucy finally looked over at him, his arms were crossed behind his head and his gaze was on the finally clear sky above them. "Why would I be embarrassed? You're probably one of the most popular girls that goes to school here, you're… pretty." For a moment, Natsu's cheeks seemed to be a slightly darker shade than they usually were. But he shook his head and grinned at her. "And I get to fight anybody who wants to challenge me, so of course I'm not angry. Maybe going to school here won't be a completely horrible thing."

For some reason… his words made her laugh. Which seemed to surprise the guy.

"You're not a very complex person, Natsu." Lucy laughed again, "There is something somewhat… refreshing about that." She then took off running, "I'm still gonna kill my cousin though, you can help if you want!"

Natsu was left to watch the girl run off for a moment before he grinned and tore off after Lucy.

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Don't forget to drop a review ~ and thank you so much for reading!


	5. Pandemonium!

I am afraid this chapter might be a bit sloppy! I should really look into finding a beta x_x I hope that you guys can enjoy the story anyway! Thank you so much to all of you for reading! I seriously appreciate each and every single one of you, especially the reviewers! I love to see how you feel about the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Ranma 1/2

This story will be updated every Tuesday but if I get 10-15 reviews on this chapter... I'll update sooner :D

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"Please understand… it is for the best miss Lucy."

"With Natsu and Gildarts here, there are even more people to feed! I wouldn't be able to live with myself as your father if I allowed you to continue making food for all of us."

Lucy pouted as she watched their maid, Gonzales, continued to put breakfast together. The girl hadn't been able to cook once since their house guests had arrived. One problem after another with the kitchen itself had prevented her from doing so. First the stove wouldn't turn on, then all of the cutlery went missing. Now… her father had decided to let one of the maids do all of the cooking from that point forward.

It was as if some greater force was against Lucy cooking at all.

But she did understand. Lucy's hair was a mess and she hadn't even started getting ready for the school day, so really… it probably _was_ for the best. But that didn't make it any easier for the troubled blonde to accept.

Then again… Gonzales had been with the Heartfilia's since she'd been a young girl. Truthfully, Lucy could see Gonzales almost as an elder sister. So perhaps it would be okay for them to let her do all of the cooking.

"Okay fine… but I get to help if I have time!" Jude laughed anxiously at his daughter's stubbornness but he nodded in agreement and Lucy then smiled at Gonzales, "Thank you for taking care of us Gonzales, you're the greatest." Gonzales only giggled before Lucy hurried out of the kitchen so that she could start getting ready.

Truthfully, Lucy didn't even want to go.

Usually, she didn't mind school. She enjoyed going and learning, seeing her friends… but ever since Laxus had opened his mouth and let it slip that Lucy had been engaged to Natsu… things had been quite hectic for both parties.

Granted, that had only happened a few days ago. But that just meant that it was all still very fresh in the minds of her fellow students. Somehow… Dan was the only one who remained in the dark about the engagement. Which Lucy suspected was not a coincidence. Everybody knew how obsessive he was over Lucy and _nobody_ actually wanted to have to put up with how Dan would react to the news. There wasn't a single part of Dan that was… rational.

The mere thought of Dan figuring it out was enough to make Lucy grimace.

"What's that face for?" Lucy jumped at the unexpected voice and she spun on her heel to see Natsu standing in the doorway of her bedroom. His arms were folded across his chest and he arched an eyebrow at her reaction before he laughed. "Geez, you really do need to train more often if _that_ took you by surprise." He snickered at the glare that she sent his way before easily folding out of the way when a book was thrown at his head.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?" Lucy finished tying her hair in it's trademark side-ponytail before grabbing her school bag and stomping into the hallway, "I could have been changing!"

"... Your door was wide open, you change without closing your door?" Natsu laughed again when Lucy's cheeks flushed as she pulled her bedroom door closed behind her.

"No. But that doesn't mean that you can't knock on the door frame just to let me know you're there. Not _everybody_ is at high alert so early in the morning." She walked past him and began to make her way back downstairs, much to her dismay… breakfast was really smelling pretty good.

"Geez, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Natsu muttered as he fell into step beside her, the chinese shirt he wore that day was red and something told her that he wouldn't be getting into the habit of wearing the school uniform. He'd gotten it the day he enrolled, but Lucy hadn't seen it once since. She couldn't help but wonder if the guy had gone ahead and burned the clothing in secret, that seemed like something he would do.

"Just didn't get enough sleep I guess," Lucy finally mumbled in response to Natsu's statement. Although, it wasn't entirely true. Lucy had actually gotten a very good nights rest. She supposed that the idea of Gonzales doing all of the cooking from that point on really did more of a number on her than she'd thought.

Cooking, while not the only activity that connected Lucy to her mother, was something she'd directly correlated with Layla Heartfilia. Lucy would probably be in a bit of a foul mood all day.

At least, that was what she thought until they actually reached the dining room.

On the table, a whole array of food was laid out for them and both Lucy's and Natsu's jaws dropped at the sheer amount. And everything looked absolutely _delicious_.

"Ah, hello again miss Lucy. Good morning Natsu." Gonzales smiled at the two as she too entered the dining room, with three colorful bundles in her hands. "I've just finished making your lunches." she walked over to the two teens and held them out with a small smile on her lips. "Would you be sure to give Laxus his whenever you can? I believe he has left early today." Lucy accepted two of the carefully wrapped bento boxes and she took a deep breath before nodding her head and smiling softly at the wheat blonde maid. An action which seemed to immediately make the slightly older girl sag a bit in relief.

"Yes, thank you Gonzales. You've done a wonderful job, I don't think I could ever make so much food in such a short span of time."

Natsu, on the other hand, had already sat down and begun to fill his plate with all the different kinds of food. "Yeah, this looks great, thank you for the food!" Natsu had managed to get a few large bites into his meal before a large and furry fist smashed down on his head. Causing Natsu to drop his plate and several pieces of his food fell off of it in the process.

"Ow!" He shouted before cutting a glare to the panda that stood behind him, holding a wooden sign that read in big black letters ' _Show more gratitude boy, were you raised by animals?'_

Lucy had to stifle the laughter that wanted to bubble up and out of her at the message written on the sign and Natsu immediately jumped up from where he'd been seated and balled his hands into fists. "I already said thank you! What else do you want me to do? Besides, should you really be asking me that when you look… when you look like that?!"

Almost immediately, the two began to fight and Jude had barely managed to open the side door that lead into the backyard before the two would have crashed right through it in an attempt to get outside and Lucy groaned loudly.

"Every morning! Why do you guys have to do this every morning?!" Gonzales smiled and held up a kettle as well as a thermos.

"Don't worry miss Lucy, you won't be late again today! I also thought that perhaps it would be a good idea to have a slightly smaller container to bring along with you just in case anything were to happen on your way to school, or even at school."

Relief washed over Lucy, Gonzales had always been the kind of person who preferred to stay in the background. She didn't know what made Jude reach out to her for this kind of job… but Lucy was glad that he did. It was clear that Gonzales was perfect for her new role in the Heartfilia household. Even if she did seem a little bit shy about it.

Of course, the kettle had certainly been needed by the time Natsu and Gildarts finished beating eachother up. Unfortunate for Natsu, there hadn't been any time for him to actually eat any breakfast.

"And that is precisely why you and your father should save your spars for after school." Lucy chided, though she did feel a little bit bad for Natsu, breakfast was amazing and he hadn't gotten any of it.

"A _true_ martial artist never ignores a challenge," Natsu informed Lucy, inadvertently ruffling the blondes feathers. "I can't just not fight with him when he starts a match with me, that would look bad on my part and shame the name of the Clive school of Fairy Tail martial arts." He spoke as though it were obvious and Lucy could feel her blood begin to pump faster as anger began to settle in. Fortunately for her, it was around then that the familiar outline of Dan came into view and she tossed her book bag at Natsu haphazardly and quickened her pace.

She couldn't think of a better person to take her anger out on, Dan Straight was the perfect punching bag.

Yet, as they were about to make contact… something strange happened. Something that had never happened before. Dan easily moved out of the way before Lucy could land a hit on him. She was so surprised, that she wasn't able to catch herself in time and actually fell to the ground.

"Hey, what the hell Straight?!" Natsu moved as if to help Lucy up, but was forced back instead when Dan's wooden sword was thrust at him.

"Natsu Clive," Dan growled, his fury almost palpable. Lucy could feel his battle spirit as it raged around him like an invisible flame. "How dare you defile my beautiful Lucy Heartfilia?! Do you have no respect for a taken woman?!"

Lucy pushed herself up from where she'd fallen and blinked, trying to make sense of what Dan was saying. She squinted at him and it was clear based on Natsu's expression that he had no idea either and Dan's rage somehow managed to intensify even further as he began to thrust his sword at Natsu repeatedly.

Dan was serious.

Natsu, being the ridiculously skilled martial artist that he was, still managed to dodge Dan's near unseeable attacks. "What the hell are you talking about Straight?!" Natsu demanded, his voice not wavering in the slightest despite his movements. "You're especially weird this morning, did you forget to take that stick out of your ass when you woke up?"

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not your woman, Dan?!" Lucy shouted, though it was clear that her words fell on deaf ears. She'd never seen Dan so… angry before. It only took another moment before she figured out what the cause of his wrath must have been.

"How dare you bed a woman that was not yours to claim?!" Now those words were enough to cause Natsu's movements to falter, which resulted with him receiving a fairy painful looking hit to the flesh between his shoulder and neck.

Lucy, appalled, could do nothing but stare at the back of Dan's head.

Natsu recovered surprisingly quickly and actually began to fight back. His cheeks were as red as the hair of his female form.

"I don't know where you're getting your information from Straight," Natsu's fists were moving even quicker than the sword had been as he beat into the upperclassmen. "But you could not be farther from the truth!" On the final word, he sent Dan flying backwards and into one of the many trees that decorated the school's courtyard.

Surprisingly enough… Dan actually struggled to get back onto his feet. Although Lucy knew that the guy was actually a fairly formidable member of the kendo club, she'd never actually seen him get so serious about something. Although, that didn't make her own fury soften even a little bit. His accusations were insulting!

"Lucy and I ain't gonna happen!" Natsu growled as he slammed his foot down on Dan's stomach, keeping the other guy from actually getting up. "So don't go around accusing me of doing shit that I never would have done!"

Lucy didn't know why, perhaps it was because of her already foul mood… or perhaps it was just the way he'd phrased it… but she felt her mood plummet even further at Natsu's words. It was as though he'd already decided that he never wanted anything to do with her romantically. Which really shouldn't have bothered her, especially considering how against the entire engagement she had been up until that point.

But at the same time… why would he be so sure that they'd never wind up together? Was there something wrong with her? Was it because she wasn't a master martial artist?

Having already been feeling pretty low about herself, Lucy promptly stomped over to where her own book bag had been abandoned beside Natsu's and she picked it up. She was done with the fight and decided that she didn't want to be late for class.

Natsu noticed and hurried after her once making sure to grab his own book bag. He asked her if she was mad but received only silence as an answer. The best thing for Lucy to do right then was to forget about Natsu, the engagement, her lack of martial arts capabilities… and delve into her school work.

So that was exactly what Lucy did. By the time lunch rolled around, all of her problems were at the back of her mind and she smiled when Cana and Erza came to gather Lucy and Levy so that they could all have lunch together. Usually, the upperclassmen were on a different lunch schedule, so Lucy was always happy when they were able to have lunch together.

"Oh no! I forgot to give Laxus his lunch!" Lucy jumped up out of her seat with the bento boxes in hand, "You guys go ahead, I'll meet up with you guys in a minute!" She then ran out of the classroom. She knew where Laxus usually ate lunch with his little group in the courtyard and it didn't take her long to get there.

"Luce," Laxus blinked in surprise when he spotted her, pausing the conversation that he'd been having with his friends. Before he could question her actions, Lucy held out one of the bento boxes that she'd been carrying. His expression changed to where he almost looked sick as he hesitantly accepted the cutely wrapped box. "Oh, Lucy you didn't have to make me a lunch…"

"Gonzales made everybody lunches and you left before you could grab yours," Lucy placed her free hand on her hip and she frowned at her cousin, "You should be more considerate of our new cook's feelings."

Laxus blinked as he absorbed the information and his face lit up a little as he looked down at the box in his hands, "Oh, Gonzales is making lunches and things now?" At Lucy's souring expression he waved his free hand a bit and cleared his throat, "I mean, that is a shame… but it will give you more time to do as you'd like, right Luce? This is a _good_ thing." He was trying to be encouraging and Lucy hated how she just couldn't perk up.

"Yes, I know." Lucy sighed lightly before offering a smile and wave at all of Laxus' friends, "I'll see you back at home Lax." She then turned around to make her way back to Levy and the others but froze when she saw that somebody was in her way.

Natsu looked nervous as he stood there and immediately Lucy cut a look to Laxus and his friends and saw that they all were heavily interested in what was surely about to unfold. They ate with shining eyes and Lucy jerked her attention back to Natsu.

"Listen Natsu, you don't have to say anything."

"Hold on a second Lucy, I just want to get this out while I can… okay?" He rubbed the back of his head and avoided Lucy's eyes and she had to actually resist the urge to groan, she knew that he had no idea what she was actually angry about and he likely would just wind up making things worse.

Thankfully, they didn't have to worry about him doing that directly.

"Natsu!" The exclamation came from above, all eyes turned upwards just in time to see something headed their way… fast.

"Lucy!" Laxus shouted and almost immediately she could feel his large arms around her, and within seconds she was pulled out of the blast zone before she could get seriously hurt. But just like that… all of her rage was forgotten as her gaze fell onto the cloud of dirt and debris that was where she and Natsu had been standing mere seconds ago.

"Hey, Natsu?" She called, fear taking ahold of her heart when she didn't see a sign of his red chinese shirt. "Natsu?!" She shouted and struggled to pull herself out of Laxus' grasp, but he held tight. He was tense as he stared at the gaping hole in the ground. As the cloud began to settle, Lucy could see what Laxus was staring at so intently.

There was somebody inside that hole, was it Natsu? No… it wasn't Natsu…

"Geez, imagine getting hit by an attack like that." Natsu's voice came from directly to her right and Lucy jumped as she quickly turned her head to look and see Natsu casually standing there beside them. Not a single scratch on his stupid face.

"Natsu, what the hell?! I was worried about you!" Lucy would have punched the guy if she weren't so tightly wrapped up in Laxus' arms. He still didn't seem ready to let go of her, which made her feel a bit uneasy.

By this point, a small crowd had formed surrounding the crater in the ground. Her classmates were true idiots half the time.

"I mean… he might have gotten me if he didn't shout my name." Natsu shrugged as though it weren't a big deal. "That was a pretty good warning."

Finally, the cloud had completely settled and Lucy's face fell into that of perplexity before she blushed and looked away from the figure standing at the bottom of the crater that he had clearly formed himself.

"Wh-why isn't that guy wearing any clothes?"

"Oh hey! Is that you down there Gray?!" A smile split across Natsu's face and Lucy found herself looking back down at the naked man despite herself. The guy had dark hair and he wore a silver cross around his neck. He looked _pissed_ as he pointed the weapon that he'd been holding, an umbrella? It looked like a closed oil-paper umbrella. He pointed it directly at Natsu and Lucy could swear that she could see blood lust in those dark eyes.

"I'm going to kill you Natsu Clive." And he _meant_ it. Lucy could tell by this guy's tone that he wasn't just saying it as a weak threat… this guy actually wanted Natsu dead. Lucy glanced at her fiance, he was laughing. She couldn't help but wonder what exactly he'd done to this guy to make him so… resentful. So bloodthirsty.

"Don't be like that Gray! Why are you so angry anyway?"

One of Gray's eyebrows twitched in agitation at the question and he slammed the tip of the umbrella into the ground, sending even more pieces of the earth flying. What was that umbrella _made_ of? Lucy had a very bad feeling. This guy seemed to be on an entirely different level from Dan, was it possible that this guy could be on the same level as Natsu? Laxus wouldn't be acting so strangely if that weren't the case.

"You destroyed my life! And for that… you will pay!" Hoisting the umbrella up once more, the naked man lunged towards Natsu.

Lucy was pulled out of the way by her cousin once more and she watched as Natsu dodged the attack this time. It really was amazing… the two were moving so quickly that it was next to impossible to follow the movements with the human eye. Lucy was certain that the only people there who could actually see what was happening was her and Laxus.

They were the only other martial artists in the area.

Finally, the other students seemed to grasp the danger levels and began to run away from the scene that was playing out. It was clear that Gray wasn't thinking about anybody else as he attacked Natsu.

"Laxus, put me down! I can get out of the way on my own if I need to." she squirmed and finally, she felt Laxus' grip on her lessen and she landed on her feet with a huff as she smoothed down the creases in her dress.

Her gaze landed on the warring teens and she felt her concern begin to bubble up again. It was clear to her that Natsu was having a bit of a hard time dodging those shockingly precise attacks.

"Lucy, lunch will be over soon. You should head back." Laxus' eyes didn't move from Natsu and Gray.

"I can't just go back now…" she was worried for Natsu, and… it was actually pretty interesting to watch. Lucy didn't often get a chance to watch a couple of high level martial artists spar, though… she _did_ realize that this situation was different. If Gray meant what he said… Natsu was fighting for more than just his honor. He was fighting for his life.

What Lucy still didn't understand, was why this Gray person was naked. It was pretty much impossible to simply ignore with how much he was moving around, much to Lucy's chagrin.

Fortunately, before the fight could draw out too much longer… a drop of rain landed on the blonde's nose and Lucy looked up, shocked by how quickly the weather had changed from relatively clear, to completely overcast.

Lightning streaked across the sky, thunder crackling along mere moments later.

Natsu cursed loudly before jumping back from Gray, surprisingly enough… Gray also jumped back. He opened the umbrella and began to run off. "This isn't over Natsu! You better start saying your goodbyes now!" Lucy watched as the naked man ran away before she turned her shocked eyes onto a very wet and very female Natsu who was doing the same.

"I guess it is a good thing he left, he would have seen your cursed form. It's also a good thing that Gonzales wound up giving me that thermos. You owe her big time." Natsu nodded in agreement and the trio headed towards the school.

Lucy helped Natsu change back before they hurried back to class, barely making it before the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

As badly as she had wanted to ask Natsu about what had happened, a chance didn't present itself until after school let out and the two were walking back home. Thankfully the rain had stopped, though the clouds still looked heavy.

"I wonder if the weather waits to start raining until I'm outside," Natsu glared up at the sky accusingly and Lucy giggled softly at the idea.

"Well, that would be more curse-like than just having to turn into a girl whenever water hits you. Maybe part of the curse is just being a water magnet." She wanted to laugh again, but Natsu didn't seem to be in the mood to laugh, which made her realize that right then was a good time to ask about the strange dark-haired guy.

"Okay, so… what did you do to that guy from before? He seemed… _really_ mad at you. I've never seen anybody so angry before…"

Natsu sighed and hopped down from the fence and walked beside Lucy, still watching the sky.

"I honestly don't know. He kind of always seemed pretty angry at me, always challenging me to fights and stuff. I had a lot of fun with that! He was a pretty good friend honestly, Gray was the only reason I- oh, we went to school together. I guess I probably should have said that first, huh?" He laughed lightly, " That's how I know him. I wonder what he is doing here in Magnolia."

"Friend?" Lucy frowned, "That did not seem like the actions of a friend Natsu, unless you did something to him that you aren't admitting to." she looked at him pointedly and he just shook his head in denial.

"No, I honestly don't know what Gray's problem is."

Lucy then thought of something else and her cheeks flushed as it popped into mind, "Well… why was he um… why was he naked?"

Natsu laughed loudly at that. "Oh, he apparently has been doing that since he was little. He says that it was apart of the training that he'd gone through with his master. I'm a little bit curious about all of that now though honestly..." Natsu looked thoughtful. "I am always interested in a new style of martial art."

Lucy was trying to figure out how stripping could be apart of martial arts when they finally got home. It had seemed like such a long day and the fact that she could smell food being cooked the second she walked in… Lucy could really see the perks of not having to do any of the cooking for the family. It would still feel weird having so much free time.

She supposed that since she didn't have to get to working on dinner right away, she could go ahead and do her homework… that would open up even more time for training in the dojo. Perhaps there was still hope for her after all!

First things first, Lucy wanted to check on the koi. With how many times Natsu and Gildarts were in and out of that pond, she was pretty worried about the colorful fish. They were certainly not used to so much activity going on in their home! Surprisingly-or perhaps not so surprisingly with how everything had been lately-a little black pig looked like it was drowning in the pond.

"Oh no!" she hurried to the edge of the pond and swiftly scooped the poor thing out of the water. "Did you decide it was hot enough to go for a swim?" She giggled softly as the pig spluttered and squirmed in her arms. "You are so cute!" At that, the pig's struggles began to slow and it peered up at Lucy with it's big, dark eyes. "Let's get you inside and warmed up, are you hungry?" She didn't see a collar… the little thing was small enough to be a pet. But too small to be somebodies escaped dinner, "I've always wanted a cute pet." Lucy said to the pig as she hurried inside to show everybody else.

Perhaps a pet was just the kind of distraction that Lucy needed.

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Thank you again for reading!

I feel like I need to warn you all right now that besides NaLu... any other ship that occurs in this story may be a bit... unusual. I'm just going with whatever I feel would be best for the story! Now saying that, I don't actually know how everything is going to go just yet. BUT yeah.

Please review if you enjoyed this story!


	6. Raining Pigs and Dogs

I'd like to go ahead and say that I'm extremely lucky to have the amazing _**Shell1331**_ to thank for being such an amazing beta! I am so grateful for you!

I would also like to say thank you to everybody who has left a review! I know I try to answer all of them, but in case I forgot somebody thank you! And to the two guests who reviewed the chapter before this one! Happy and Monika! Both of your reviews made me smile! So seriously thank you!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Ranma 1/2

I'm updating this story every Tuesday, but if I get 10-15 reviews on this chapter... I'll update sooner :D

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"Why is there a pig in the house?" Natsu asked the second he noticed Lucy playing with the small, round, and black creature. "Didn't your dad ever tell you that playing with your food is a _bad_ thing?"

Not even a full second following his teasing words, he had to tilt out of the way so that he could avoid being hit by several flying books. "I'm kidding! Geez, you have absolutely zero chill." This time an encyclopedia hit its mark, and Natsu fell backwards dramatically, groaning all the while and his left cheek already reddening from the impact of the book's spine to his face.

"P-chan is not food, and if I ever hear you say something like that again, you're going to regret it." Lucy held the little animal close to her chest, and Natsu could swear that it actually appeared as though the thing was blushing.

"P-chan? What kind of name is that?" Natsu couldn't seem to stop himself from picking on Lucy over the matter, and the blonde looked away, a frown upon her lips. Clearly, she was losing her patience with him.

"P-chan is a _cute_ name," she responded coolly as her attention returned to the cute little thing she'd quickly adopted. "It suits her just fine."

"Are you sure it is a her?" Natsu snickered, causing Lucy to blink before lifting up and turning P-chan so that she could get a good, long look to see for herself.

"Oh, I guess… I guess not." Lucy shrugged. "P-chan is still a valid name," she decided with another shrug of the shoulders. "Who is my cute little boy?" Lucy smiled fondly down at the animal as she rubbed the top of his head. Natsu watched with interest as the pig almost seemed to understand what Lucy was saying.

It creeped him the fuck out.

Promptly, Natsu walked over and plucked P-chan right out of Lucy's arms. Almost immediately, it began to squirm and fight against him, and there was something almost familiar about the look in its beady dark eyes as it glared at Natsu and tried its best to kick at him with its stumpy legs.

"Natsu!" Lucy was on her feet immediately and grabbed for the poor thing. "What is the matter with you? Don't pick on him! He is just a little bit, you can't go around picking on defenseless little animals!"

The pink-haired martial artist easily held the pig up and out of Lucy's reach with a relatively blank expression as he yawned. "I don't think I like this pig—how about you go find a different one?"

Lucy puffed out her cheeks into a pout as she finally gave up and folded her arms across her chest. She didn't want to accidentally hurt P-chan in her efforts to try to get him away from the brazen martial artist. "Natsu, I'm not going to get a different pig just because _you_ don't like P-chan." Her hands moved to her hips as she stared at him expectantly and began to tap her foot impatiently. "Besides, there is no reason for you to _not_ like P-chan!"

"Like hell there ain't! Just look at the way it is looking at me!"

"That's just because you're being so rough with him!"

"He was glaring at me the second I walked into the room!"

"You're being ridiculous, just give him back, Natsu!"

"No!"

"Give him back!"

"Get him back yourself if you want him so badly!"

At the challenge, Lucy's patience almost audibly shattered as she began to reach for P-chan once more. Natsu only stepped back in an attempt to continue their game of 'keep away.'

Except his heel caught the small step that lead into the dining room from the living room, and all of a sudden he was falling backwards. Which wouldn't have been a problem at all, had he not been holding a pig in one hand…and if Lucy weren't adding to the pressure as she tipped right along with him.

Natsu hit the floor with a loud thud and accidentally let go of the little black pig, who quickly scurried off and disappeared before either one of the martial artists could even react to what had just happened. Lucy stared down at Natsu's face—she'd landed directly on top of him.

He was warm, and she could feel the warmth of his skin through the clothes that he wore. She could feel the firm and toned muscles through his shirt as well. The blonde almost immediately got back to her feet when she realized how close together they were. Her cheeks flushed a brilliant red that could rival Natsu's Chinese shirt before she remembered the entire reason she'd been pressing herself so close to Natsu in the first place, and she looked around, almost in a panic.

"You lost P-chan!" Lucy accused as she stood up and began to look around. "I can't believe this, Natsu…" Lucy looked as though she were genuinely upset, and Natsu was a little bit taken aback by how that made his chest tighten.

"Hey, it is just a—" He cut himself off when he realized that it was pretty heartless to say that it was just a pig. Even Natsu knew that much. He never really understood the importance of pets, though he supposed if Lucy actually cared about the little guy. "Okay, look, I'm sorry. I'll help you look for him. How does that sound?"

Lucy still looked angry and upset, but she nodded.

And that was how instead of training, Natsu wound up outside with an umbrella. There weren't very many clouds in the sky, but Natsu had come to decide that he didn't really want to feel safe based on that. He had an inkling that Lucy had been right when she said that there may be more to the curse than just changing into a girl whenever he got hit by water. Because it really seemed as though cold water followed him everywhere he went.

"P-chan," he called halfheartedly as he walked around the backyard. "Where are you at, ya stupid pig? You're making Lucy upset." Truly, Natsu wasn't entirely sure why he even cared about that. It wasn't as though he cared about the girl that he was supposed to call 'fiancée.'

Though even as his thoughts came to that, he knew that he it was pointless trying to deny it. There was something so...different about Lucy that drew him to her in a way that he'd never felt drawn to another person before. It was honestly a bit scary, and Natsu wasn't sure he was ready for something like that.

He'd trained his whole life to fight people, not feelings or emotions. He'd never been very good at holding a verbal battle, which he supposed was why Lucy often got him flustered. She was a fairly well-spoken person, and that put him on edge a little bit. She also had been pretty quick to accept him despite his… _condition_. He supposed that was more than likely the reason that he felt kind of guilty over having teased her so much.

Just thinking about all of that was enough to make Natsu groan and run a hand back through his already messy hair. Why did Pop have to bring them here? Up until they'd been cursed, the two of them had been doing pretty well for themselves in the means of training. Natsu had truly become a great martial artist under his father's instruction.

All coming to the Heartfilia's had done was hinder that improvement. He didn't see how being there would be good for him as a martial artist in the long run, and wasn't that all his father ever said was important? From the time Natsu was able to understand, his pop was drilling it into his head that being a powerful martial artist was the only way to live a full and happy life.

"Dammit, P-chan," Natsu tried again as he looked around a couple bushes. "I'm getting real sick and tired of this."

He was still looking in the bushes when he sensed somebody come up behind him, fast. Almost too fast for him to actually notice in time.

"Natsu." Instinctively, the pink-haired teen spun on his heel, though he wasn't able to dodge or block the kick to his stomach. Pain splintered through his center before he smashed into the concrete wall that represented the end of the Heartfilia's property lines.

The concrete cracked upon contact with Natsu's body, and for a second, the pink-haired teen saw stars before he dropped to the ground, right back to his feet. He staggered for a moment before centering himself and dropping into a fight-ready stance.

In front of him stood Gray. Just as naked as he had been when he'd attacked earlier that day. He also looked just as angry. Steam appeared to be rolling off of his skin, but Natsu blinked, and thought that he must have been seeing things. Perhaps a result of having hit his head on the wall, who knew? Natsu certainly didn't pay any mind to it.

"Gray, c'mon. I don't got time for this." Natsu gritted his teeth as he took a step forward, shocked by the pain he still felt by the blow he'd taken. Gray was a lot stronger than the last time that they'd faced off with one another. In fact, Natsu wouldn't have been entirely surprised if Gray was actually on his level.

Though Natsu refused to actually accept that as a truth. He'd trained too hard to want to believe that he wasn't the strongest martial artist his age. Though he knew how ridiculous it would be for him to believe something like that. He supposed that winning all the time had made him a little bit on the cocky side.

"You don't got time for this?" Gray repeated before smirking. "Well, you're going to have to make time for this Natsu. I've waited a very long time for this moment, _too_ long." With that, he pointed at Natsu angrily. "You've destroyed my life, my…my…" Gray seemed to be struggling to say what he wanted to, and for a short moment, Natsu truly felt bad for the guy. Gray was what he'd think a tortured soul would look like.

"How did I destroy your life? I haven't seen you in like…two years! You seemed fine back then, and you seem fine now! Well…other than the fact that you're naked." Natsu looked from side to side before returning his attention to Gray. "You should really work on that, Gray. You'll be called a pervert around these parts."

"How did you destroy my life?" Gray repeated Natsu's words for the second time, and Natsu could feel his own frustrations welling up at that. "You left for China without fighting me, Natsu!" Gray shook with a rage that Natsu couldn't understand. "Like the coward you are, you ignored my challenge. So naturally... I followed you to China. I wanted to make you eat dirt after not taking my challenge seriously."

Natsu frowned as he struggled to comprehend what Gray was saying before he blinked. "I didn't ignore your challenge, Gray. I waited for three days at the place you wanted to meet for the fight! Three days! You never showed up! I figured that you'd be able to find the place well enough since it was in the empty lot that was right behind your house."

Gray blinked at that revelation, but that didn't seem to appease his anger. "A true martial artist would have waited forever if that is what it took!"

"How is that fair?!" Natsu balled his hands into fists. "It isn't my fault that your sense of direction is completely hopeless! Pop dragged me away by the time the third day hit and you didn't show up. You should really learn how to get around before you challenge somebody to a scheduled fight! Learn how to show up on time!"

"None of that matters anymore!" Gray shouted. "What matters…is that it is _your_ fault that I'm the way that I am! It is because of you!" On that note, Gray began to attack Natsu again, not seeming to hold anything back, and Natsu cursed as he had to give it his all just to avoid getting hit by another one of those solid punches, much less actually counter with an attack of his own.

It was as he was dodging that he came to a realization. Something Gray had said… Something that Natsu should have picked up on sooner…

China. Gray had followed Natsu to China? Could that mean…?

"Gray!" Natsu shouted. "When you said you followed me to China…what did you mean?" Fear began to grip Natsu's heart as he thought of what Gray could have been meaning… Had Gray fallen into one of the cursed springs as well? Was Gray also cursed? Natsu supposed if that were the case…he could understand Gray's rage. It was completely reasonable… But it wasn't _Natsu's_ fault that Gray had decided that he wanted to follow Natsu all the way to China. "Are you talking about Jusenkyo?" Natsu asked hesitantly.

Despite knowing that it wasn't truly his fault…the teen _did_ feel guilt when a look of pain crossed Gray's face at the mention of the cursed springs, and Natsu knew in that moment that he'd hit the nail right on the head. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and both Natsu's and Gray's heads jerked up to see that the sky had become quite cloudy during their little skirmish, and once more, Natsu felt sure that Lucy had been right about her little theory on the Jusenkyo curse.

"Gray, what do you…?" Before he could ask, rain began to fall, and Gray cursed before running off.

"You'll never find out if I have anything to say about it, Natsu! Just know…that I'll get my revenge on you. Just you wait!"

Gray was gone before Natsu could think of anything to say, and the pink-haired male barely got his umbrella open in time before it really started to pour.

"P-chan!" Lucy's voice shouted, reminding Natsu of the entire reason he'd been outside in the first place, and he sighed lightly.

"He isn't out here, Lucy," Natsu called. "I'll go out and look to see if he left your yard, just wait inside." He then spun around and took off in the direction that Gray had gone.

"Gray!" he called, "Come on, Gray, I'm sorry that this happened to you, but you can't honestly blame me for falling into one of those cursed springs! Come on out, okay?" There was a rustling behind him, and Natsu turned to see a dog growling at him. The dog was black, and _angry_.

"Hey, calm down, all right? A dog, huh? That isn't um… that isn't _too_ bad." He felt his chest tighten again, and once more he felt the guilt rearing its ugly head. Natsu felt _so_ guilty. If he had just expressed how important the match with Gray had been, the idiot wouldn't have felt the need to follow Natsu. Gray wouldn't have fallen into one of those wretched springs. Gray would still be normal. Natsu couldn't even imagine what it would be like to lose his _humanity_ to his curse. He really didn't give his pop the credit that he deserved for putting up with being an on-occasion panda so well.

"I'm sorry, Gray…" Natsu looked genuinely apologetic as he stared down at the dog who continued to growl. "We'll find a way to get back to our old selves. Don't worry! You can stay with me and Pop! I'm sure the Heartfilias wouldn't mind!" The dog had stopped growling and instead watched Natsu with apprehensiveness as the martial artist started to try to grab it.

When all was said and done, Natsu, drenched by the rain and in his female form, had several bite and scratch marks all up his arms and even on his face. He had managed to finally wrestle the dog into submission before picking it up, and carrying it back to the Heartfilia house.

If he hadn't had to turn into a girl, Natsu was sure that he'd have been able to get the dog to submit a lot quicker than he did. He was pretty sure that one or two of the scratches would wind up scarring, which he didn't really mind too much.

Every scar had a story! He was sure that one day he and Gray would be laughing over the whole ordeal, when they finally managed to get rid of the curses anyway.

It wasn't until after he'd taken off his shoes that he realized that he had forgotten to do one very important thing.

"P-chan," Natsu whispered, "Lucy is gonna kill me…"

"Natsu, is that you?" Lucy called, causing the redhead to grimace. "You were outside a long time, I was just about to go out and—" Lucy rounded the corner and jumped in surprise when she took in Natsu, his female form, and the dog. "Why…?" she asked slowly, and Natsu's eyes fell onto the black bundle that Lucy was holding in her arms and lit up.

"Oh, good you found P-chan!" When Lucy nodded, Natsu looked back to the dog that he had carried in. "I found this little guy outside and thought that maybe we could give him a nice and hot bath? Look at how dirty and cold he looks!"

Lucy frowned. "Well, as nice as that is, Natsu… I don't think the Conbolts would appreciate you taking their dog like that."

Natsu blinked at the revelation before looking back down at the dog.

"Wait… This is somebody's dog?"

Before Lucy could answer, there was a loud rapping on the door. Lucy sent Natsu a glare before pulling the heavy door open with the hand she wasn't using to hold P-chan to her chest.

There stood a very wet and slightly irritated-looking Cana.

"Romeo saw some redheaded girl take Bones and come to your house, so I thought I'd stop over and see—" Cana blinked and stared at Natsu, who continued to hold onto the now squirming dog.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Cana…um… This is…" Lucy looked to Natsu with panic in her big brown eyes. She had no idea what she was supposed to say in the situation placed before her. "This is…"

"I'm Natsu's twin sister, Natsko." Natsu grinned widely before remembering why Cana was there in the first place, and Lucy almost laughed as she watched Natsu's smugness melt into something of embarrassment. "I um…" He looked at Lucy and glared upon noting the blonde's clear amusement. "I just saw the cute doggy, and I was worried that it would get sick!" Natsu moved to hand the dog over to Cana.

The brunette appeared suspicious but accepted Bones, squinting at Natsu apprehensively.

"How come you never told me that Natsu had a sister, Lucy?" Cana asked, not removing her gaze from Natsu as she spoke. "Why doesn't she go to school with him?"

"Oh that's…because Natsko is homeschooled!" Lucy laughed anxiously. Fortunately though, it was at that time Gildarts returned from…wherever it was he occasionally went during the day. He stood behind Cana, not wanting to bump into her. He held an umbrella over his head.

"Well, aren't things lively today?" He laughed boisterously. Slowly, Cana turned her head to look at the new speaker. Lucy watched as her friend tensed.

"Gildarts," Cana spoke evenly, taking everybody by surprise as she did so. "You've got balls to come back here."

Gildarts's jaw dropped as he looked Cana up and down, clearly taken aback by what the teenager had said to him. Lucy had never seen the loud and proud man silenced before. She wasn't sure that it was something she particularly enjoyed witnessing.

"Hey, I mean…sure Pop does some…questionable things. But that doesn't give you the right to talk to him like that." Natsu might fight with the guy often, but he really did care about Gildarts. He wouldn't let some girl talk to his pop like that.

Unfortunately, that was all it took to be on the receiving end of Cana's silent fury.

"Pop? What the hell are you saying?" Her eyes were on Gildarts again. "Is that your kid?"

Gildarts's mouth continued to open and close, though no sound came out. Which only further pissed Natsu off. "Yeah, I'm his kid!" Natsu had to restrain himself in order to keep from actually hitting this girl. He was almost positive that doing something like that would only make matters worse. That…and he was not a fan of fighting girls. He didn't do it at all unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

Cana, without a word or any kind of indication as to why she was so upset, left. Leaving everybody to wonder about what the hell had just happened.

"What is it with you Clives and getting people so worked up?" Lucy looked displeased, but mostly…she looked confused. She'd never seen Cana act like that before. Not even when Erza had accidentally spilled grape juice on Cana's favorite shirt.

"I've never even seen that girl…" Gildarts finally said, seeming to snap out of his frozen state once Cana had left. "I don't know what I could have done." Lucy couldn't help but laugh at that.

"First Natsu and Gray, now you and Cana? I should really be careful around the two of you. Clearly you're both trouble." Lucy laughed again before she looked down at P-chan. "Let's go get you warmed up, you're still so wet! Don't worry, I'm not going to let that bully touch you again." She sent a pointed look at Natsu, who only laughed and rubbed the back of his head.

He watched Lucy disappear around the corner before he turned and looked outside through the still open front door. Gray was out there, somewhere. He was suffering all on his own. Natsu wanted to find him, but also knew…that there was a good chance that Gray didn't even know where he'd wind up when he stopped running.

The possibility of Natsu finding him was small. Especially since the sky had grown dark.

"You should close the door, Pop," Natsu said as he finally began to walk away from the entrance to the house, making sure to take off his drenched shoes. "It's weird to stand there with that dumb look on your face." Gildarts seemed to have been too busy contemplating about something deeply in order to hear his son's words, so Natsu figured that it wouldn't do any good trying to talk to him at that point.

What he really wanted was a nice, hot bath. He was ready for the day to end.

He would take a bath, return to his normal self, maybe eat a snack…then go to bed. If fate would allow such an easy end to the day.

Thankfully…due to his father's confusion, he wasn't drawn into any unnecessary fights and was able to get into bed relatively easily.

Despite his exhaustion, Natsu couldn't help but think about all that had unwound that day. If that dog hadn't been Gray, Natsu wondered what Gray's cursed form was. It had to be something pretty bad to get him so worked up and angry over it.

He wanted to know more about why Lucy's friend had lashed out at Gildarts the way that she had. There had to be a reason, right? He supposed the only thing he could do was sleep on it—it wasn't as though he would get any answers just thinking about it.

Better leave all trouble up to future Natsu.

Sleep greeted the young martial artist the moment he closed his eyes.

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